Our print publications are advertiser supported. For those wishing to access our content online, we have implemented a small charge so we may continue to provide our valued readers and community with unique, high quality local content. Thank you for supporting your local newspaper.

‘This is Colorado’ awards announced at college

Exhibit of 60 paintings is joint presentation by school, arts guild

“This is Colorado” 2018 Best of Show award went to Tamiko Watada Takeda for her oil painting, “Shadows: Reflections of Life.” It is at Colorado Gallery of the Arts at Arapahoe Community College.

Photo by Frank Weaver

Posted
Wednesday, December 26, 2018 10:13 am

If you go

The Colorado Gallery of the Arts is in the Annex at the east side of the Arapahoe Community College Littleton campus, 5900 S. Santa Fe Drive. “This is Colorado” exhibit runs until Jan. 17. Hours: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays to Fridays. Open until 7 p.m. on Tuesdays; 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturdays. Closed Dec. 25 through Jan. 2. Admission free.

The spacious Colorado Gallery of the Arts at Arapahoe Community College was crowded on Dec. 13 as artists, families, friends gathered to celebrate. Juror Trish Sangelo, gallery director, announced winners of the “This is Colorado” annual exhibition, a partnership between ACC and the Heritage Fine Arts Guild — all examples of especially strong painterly technique, although quite different.

• Best of Show: Tomiko Watada Takeda’s 16-by-20-inch oil painting, “Shadows, Reflections of Life.” The landscape depicts a sunny fall day, with a lone figure nearing the end of a pathway along a split rail fence, which makes a strong shadow pattern ... Her website offers her words about it: “The painting is a visual metaphor. The shadows along the walking path reflect the pathway of our lives ...”

• First Place: Susan Yager’s small, expressive oil portrait of a woman, “Imagine.” One speculates about what she sees and reacts to at that moment ...

• Second Place: “Colorado Craft,” a sparkling watercolor by Cindy Welch, shows a wooden bar top with glasses and bottles of beer — and surroundings.

• Third Place: “Fire and Ice: Autumn in the Rockies” by Lee Wasilik, a large, bright acrylic — an abstracted interpretation of the high color one finds on a sunny fall day in the Rockies.

Sangelo also specified four “Juror’s Choice” awards and there were a dozen vendor’s awards, from Jack Richeson School of Art (three); Ampersand Paper; Cheap Joe’s Art Supplies; Gamblin Artists Colors; Guiry’s Art Supplies (three); Tech for All (Rose Keating) (two); and Windsor Newton Watercolor. The guild does an exceptional job of gathering this extra support for the annual exhibit.

Sangelo said there were 164 entries from 60 different artists. From those, 60 paintings were chosen (a few had more than one accepted and some, none — a juror focuses on the image presented, not the artist’s name).

Most are representational and techniques vary greatly, so a visitor will see a range of images, mediums, visions, with a lot of options for creating stories for oneself: What’s going on here? What is that person pictured thinking about? What was the artist thinking when she/he created this image? Might the artist have been feeling sad, mad, elated, subdued by a place of exceptional beauty??? And/or was the artist especially competent at handling a chosen medium? Are the color choices calming or jarring? Is there a rhythm? How is light handled? How about the composition of the elements depicted — and the negative spaces?

We hope readers will find time to enjoy this pleasing collection of works by Colorado artists. (The meaning of the title is that the show is open to all Colorado artists — not that it must be a Colorado scene.)

The following are results from state Legislature, county and municipal races, and ballot issues from the Nov. 6 election. Results for county and municipal offices and ballot questions were updated shortly after midnight on Nov. 7. For state Senate and state House, results were updated Nov. 8.